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OBSERVATIONS ON THK HISTORY OP 
VIRGINIA. 

A DISCOURSE 
Delmred before the Vin/inia Historical So- 
cieti/, at their eighth Annvdl 3[eetinq, Decem- 
ber 14, 1854, 

Hy Hon/K. M. T.' Hunter. 
My. Trcsidenl and Gentlemen " 

of tlta Virginia Ilistoriail Society : 
When I received the invitation to deliver your 
anuual discourse, I was so well aware that I 
could not bring- to the tf.sk that fullness of Icnowl- 
fdgewhich is essenlinl to do justice to the sub- 
jt^cl, that my lirst impulse was to decline the 
honor, highly as I esteemed it. But, ii|>on sub- 
sequent redeetion, it struck me that I might per- 
haps render useful aid to your society, by calling 
l)ublic attention, in some degree, to the great im- 
portance of the objects of your pursuit, and the 
high value of such labors not only to ourselves, 
but to others. I cannot be accused ot error in 
bearing such testimony to the great objects of 
your pursuit, by those who reflect upon tlieir na- 
ture and tendencies. For surely one of the 
highest offices that man can render to his race, is 
to store up the experience and the ideas of the 
.present generation for the uses of those which 
are to succeed it. and to render such treasures of 
the past accessible to his cotemporaries. Next 
iu importance to him who first conceives the "reat 
thought, or originates the high example, si'aiids 
ihe man who preserves the example and perpetu- 
ates the thought for the everlasting use and pos- 
session of the generations which a"ro to succeed 
him. It is through man's capacity to use the ex- 
perience and the thoughts of his fellows, and to 
store up and accumuhite such treasures by add- 
ing the present stock to that of tha past, that he 
mainly secures the means of the progress and 
growth which so distinguish liim from all other 
animals. To ascertain the extent of the develop- 
ment which the human race may attain by the use 
of such means, we have only to compare the 
Anglo-Saxon, the Celt or the Teuton of to-day, 
with his rude ancestors, who roamed through the 
forests of Gaul, or of Germany, as described to 
us by Cr.-sar and Tacitus. (I will not take the 
more striking comparison between the Bushman 
or Fetish worshiper of Africa with his civilized 
cotemjiorary, because that might bo ascribed 
more to a dill'erence of race than of cultivation, 
to which alone I refer at present. The first pre- 
sents a case quite strong enough for the purpose 
of illustration, as there is almost as much differ- 
ence between the former and present condition 
of the races, as between the first and last state of 
the statue man, imagined by the French philoso- 
pher to awaken, sense by sense, into existence, 
until he stood completely clothed in all the attri- 
butes of humanity.) Take, then, the savage an- 
cestor and the civilizud decendaiit, and compare 
them, sense with sense, and faculty with fiiculty, 
and how vast is the diflerence ! The vision of the 
first was bound by the limits of the sensible horizon ; 



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a lew miles iipou"earlli,aiul some of tlie largerob- 
jecls in ilielieavens alone were visible to him, 
wmi!*t he vyas enlirely miconsciousof the myriads 
01 bemgs, living and moving- within and around 
mm. I lie vision of the last penelraies into the 
very dejuhs of space, and discovers worlds and 
systems ol worlds, all unlcnown to his rude pro- 
genitor ; he weighs their substance, measures 
their dimensions, and calculates their molions, 
with an accuracy which the other hardly at- 
tained will, regard to the objects of his imme- 
diate contact; or, turning his magic glass, 
he exp ores a microcosm in the almost infin- 
itesimal atom, and becomes sensible of myriads of 
beings, who people it and give it life. How many 
more tunes, then, is the last a man, as compared 
with he first, lUesled by the sense of sight alone ' 
Tried by the acnll.es of physical strength and 
motion, the diHerence is still as great in hh favor. 
He directs and controls the most subtle and pow- 
erlul physical agencies, and imprisons captives f\ir 
mightier than bamson, who grind blindly at his 
mill. Still more M-onderful is his superiority in 
the means o( communicating with his fellow. His 
hough s are exchanged in seconds over distances 
hrough which (ormerly ihey could not have 
been communicated in months; and he him- 
sell lies along the earth with a speed greater than 
the horse, and perhaps equalling that of the bird. 
In this vast increase of the means for accumula- 
luig strength and for association amongst men, 
how much greater is the amount of power whic'l, 
alls to the share ol the civilized individual than 
ha to which the savage ancestor could by possi- 
bihly have aspired! 

Uoubtless the wild man of the woods could dis- 
tinguish between sounds, as pleasant or unplcas- 
an as grave or gay, but what sense had he of the 
hidden harmonies which floated in the air around 
him Did he dream that the very air which he 
breathed could be modulated into sounds which 
subdue the senses by their tones, and stir the soul 
o its inmost depths, speaking in the only universal 
language !,nown to man, with an unerring concord 
and a certainty of expression which the original 
curse 01 babel has never reached to confuse or 
aestroy? So, too, he must have had some idea ol 
the beautilul, m the Ibrms of things ; but it was as 
transitory as the lights and shadows which ilitted 
by. him. lo hx the idea ere it lied, and reproduce 
11 in lorms more eloquent than words ; to malce 
sentient the cold impassive stone, and to embalm 
emotions and sentiments in lights borrowed from 
heaven, would have been indeed to him an "art 
ami a faculty tUviue," so far did it transcend his 
power of execution. Nor is the superiority ol the 
la.st over the lormer generation of the men of 
whom Iiave been speaking, less striking in a 
moral, than in a physical point of view. Concep- 
tions over which a Newton, or a Leibnitz, or 
Lernouilli, or Eulcr, toiled in hi» study, are now 
the daily exercises of boys at college; and the 
higherand subtler analysis of La Grange, or La 
Place, IS pro Mbly destined to be mastered with 
equal facility herealter. Ideas whose origination 
cost so much to a Plato, or an Aristotle, a Bacon, 
a JJes Cartes, or a Kant, are now the common 



property ol the world, and thousands understand 
thoughts which probably not one of them could 
have discovered. 

In times of peace, and since the invention ol 
printuig-, it may almost be said that each genera- 
tion starts from the point that the last had attained : 
and if in compaiing the present witli llie past, we 
find so vast a dillerence in favor of the existing 
generation of men, with what proud hopes may 
we not be justly inspired for the future progress 
of onr race ! If the dilierence between the two 
generations whom I have oompared be such as 
would seem to a superficial observer to indicate a 
superior nature in the last, what may we not right- 
fully expect of future improvement, when \ve 
think oflhegreateropportunitiesfor progress which 
each succeeding generation will enjoy? A proud 
thought this, but not t^iojjroud, if we remember, 
with becoming gratitude anii nUiTiiVay,Jo wiiose 
power it is that we owe these faculties aiid oppo. 
tuuities, and endeavor to fulfill the conditions 
upon which alone such a promise could have been 
given. One of these conditions undoubtedly is, 
that we should preserve the exoerience and the 
ideas of the past and the present, for the use of 
the future. Without this faculty of one man to 
use and possess himself of the example and id«as 
of another, our race could never have reached the 
point to which it has already attained ; and with- 
out the means of preserving these examples and 
these ideas, that faculty could not be exercised. 
To preserve these is the historian's function, 
yours, sir, and that of the society over which you 
preside. 

I have already said that I rate the historian next 
only in point ot importance to him from whom first 
emanates the great example, or high conception, 
and who, by original discovery, extends the bound- 
aries of human thought; and to this extent Ilhinlc 
experience will fully bear me oiit. Tho historian 
is the treasurer who stores away and preserves 
the moral w^j^lth of the human race, and' hoards 
up the ideas and conceptions which are as essen- 
tial to its spiritual growth and elevation, as 
material means are to its physical existence. But 
'.there is one great and never to be forgotten dilVer- 
ence between the two species of wealth, moral 
and material, which leaves no doubt as to the 
superior value of the former. In the first, each 
may enjoy all, and yet leave no smaller individual 
share to another; it is not consumed by its use, 
and sutlers no loss by division; in the last, when 
one takes a part, less is left for his neiglvbor. In 
the fir^t, the broadest socialism is practicable, the 
property is improved from its possession by many, 
and such is the law of its increase and growth; in 
the latter, individual and exclusive possession of 
a pari seems to i)e the law of the growth ol the 
whole, and lieuce arise manifold difiicultics, to 
which I may perhajis allude, but cannot in this 
place deveUip. In a few words, the difiereiice 
between the two, i.s all the dillerence between the 
finite and the iniiiiiie- 



I have ilwf It somewhat upon ibis topic, even at 
the risk of seeming metaphysical, because I felt 
that I was touching upon a subject which is 
hardly enough considered at this day, by states- 
men and phifosophers, and all those, in short, who 
seek to lead the march of human thought. In tlie 
developeniem of material wealth and power, there 
never has been such a period as the present in 
the history of the human race. Can we say the 
same of the care bestowed upon its moral re- 
sources'? That ihe moral progress of our race 
has been great, I have already admitted; but is 
there not danger, that in thu eager pursuit of 
material wealth, physii-al improvement, we uiay 
not sufficiently consider the culture of those moral 
resources, whose developement is so important to 
a high national character ? 

If the uses of human history be such as approxi- 
mate to those I have described, how can we over- 
estimate their importance, or that of the failhjul 
historian? When I speak of the hi.-.ioiian, I do 
not mean him only who narrates events in letters 
and sentences. He who preserves a record of 
th'jughts and sentiments, is as much to be valued 
as a historian, as he who chronices human ac- 
tions and passions; and he who preserves a great 
conception for the uses of posterity, performs the 
duty of a historian, no matter what the shape in 
which it may be perpetuated as a possession to 
mankind. Thucydides was no more a historian ol 
the time of Pericles, than Phidias; from the one we 
learn the march of its events, from the other the 
state of the arts; and realize a conception of the 
beautiful, so preserved as to be food for the thought 
of after ages. The Elgin marbles are as valuable 
to us in an historical point ol view, as the most 
splendid passages of Thucydides, and the friezesof 
the Parthenon are so many pictured pages, which 
speak of the past both to the mind and eye of the 
beholder, and almost with the force of a living wit- 
4iess. Whatever preserves an idea or the memory 
of a fact for the benefit of man, is historical in 
Its uses; and all the various forms in which this 
object is attained, deserve our study and conside- 
ration. The great historians who are distinguish- 
ed alike for powers of narration, sagacious criti- 
cism, and faithful delineations of the characters of 
nations, or individuals, are truly of rare occur- 
rence, " homines ccnlenuriiP It is not for every 
era, or every peo|)le,to produce even one of them. 
The Thucydides, or Tacitus, or even the Herodo- 
tus, or Livy, of the English language, has not yet 
appeared.^ But in ail civilized countries, the 
means and the men exist for collecting monuments 
and traditions, from which their history may be 
understood, or written; to collect, and if possible 
to arrange them, is the great duty of an associa. 
lion such as yours, a duty which it may be said, 
that every people, so far as their own annals are 
concerned, owe to their ancestors, to themselves 
and to humanity. 

Many of the civilized nations of the earth, seem 
t9 be acting, under a sense of ih//u- •-'bligations in 
this regard, and a most exiracpdinary fcvocess lias 



rewarded tlieii- labors. With the expedition of 
Napoleon lo Egypt, commencGd a series ot" re- 
searches into ilie monumental history of the earth, 
whose results have been at once startling and 
gratifying-. Thanks to modern discovery, the Ro- 
sella tablet now ranks with Arundelian marbles 
in point of political importance, and the pictured 
pages on the books of stone of monumental Egypt, 
which for so many ages have defied his scrutiny, 
are now forced to yield up tlieir secrets to the in- 
quisition of man. The boundaries of authentic 
history have been set back for several ages in the 
past, monuments of more than five thousand years 
of age have been identified, and a period of many 
centuries has been recovered from the realms of 
night and chaos into which it had fallen.* 

Almost everyvrhere enterprises liave been set 
on fool by governniciit, by associations, and even 
by individuals, to explore the monumental records 
of our race, and to wrest from the cold, imi>assive 
face of the silent stone, some portion at least of 
the story of humanity. The land of " Eld," the 
immutable and imniorial East, is everywhere 
searched for its traditionary treasures of human 
lore, and whole cities of the dead have been un- 
covered to the astonished gaze of civilized man. 
Heroes whose very existence had seemed fabu- 
I0U.S, now take their appropriate niche in the Tem- 
ple of Fame, and eras whose traditions liad been 
hid in the "awful hoar" of innumerable ages, 
once more assume tiieir place in the pige 
of authentic history. Still, as we treatl these 
silent chambers of the long-forgotten dead, we 
start at the unmislnkable signs of their fellowshi[) 
with ourselv'es in all the passions of the luinian 
race. Amidst the mazes of winged bulls, and 
sculptured lions, we see pictured on the everlast- 
ing stone, the same dark story of human suffering 
and human wrong. The conqueror, returning 
from afar, rode then as afterwards, triumphant in 
ills chariot, and dejected files of the captives of 
his bow and spear, in sad procession followed in 
his train. Then, as now, man sought to perpetu- 
ate the story of his power and prowess, ]<y monu- 
ments so lasting as lo defy the ravages of time. 
As the wayiarer on a distant siiore leaves some 
sign by wliich lie seeks to perpetuate a sense of 
his presence to those who may succeed him, so 
we find llial hiuuiinily has set its marks in these 
remote and newly-discovered regions of the Past. 
Light begins tost reutn in many a dark crypt through 
fissures made by the investigating liand of man, 
and night slowly lifts its curtain from events upon 
which its shadow had reposed until they had be- 
come forgotten, and unknown. It would be surpris- 
ingindeed,if sucli things as these had not served to 
awaken expectation, and excite inquiry. In the 
midst of so stirring a scene, and in the view of 
the honorable rivaliy amongst civilized nations for 
precedence in the palli of historical inquiry, shall 
apatiiy 1)0 found only here, in the "ancient Do- 
minion," as Virginia styled herself by her own 
House of Burgesses so far back as UVMt Shall 
we suffer the very records of our own history to 
be lost irrevocably, when tliev might be preserved 



*Bunsen's "Egypt's Place itr Universal IJis- 
tory,'' vol. I, page '-"^ of Introduc/ion, and pages 83 
and '.>'.!. / 



with so little trouble ? Surely there never started 
an argosy more richly freighted with human des- 
tiny, than the little lleet ol three vessels which, 
on the r.'th of December, 1600, left the shores of 
England in search of Virginia ; for it was the ven- 
ture which iirst planted successi'ully the germ of 
Anglo-Saxon civilization upon the continent of 
America. ITad this enterprise been the favorite 
subject of an imagination as lively as that of the 
Gfeelcs, who made so much of the voyage of the 
Argonauts, and their fust exploring expedition 
into the Euxine, it would long since have been 
celebrated as a chosen theme in history and in 
song. Each had its fabled dangers to encounter, 
and each gave a rich promise to real results. If 
the Symplcgades threatened to inclose the ship 
of the one in their deadly embrace, the "still 
vexed Bermoothes," or " Isle of Devils," as the 
eaily adventures called it,t lay in the way of the 
other. The tleece of gold was the charm which 
attracted both. 

In the whole history of human adventure, per- 
haps none ever beheld a scene more wild and 
strange than that which stretched before the eyes 
of the iiist settlers oi Virginia, as they laid upon 
the quiet bosom ol'the James, whose silent waters 
rolled iVom they knev/ not wliere, and whose sil- 
ver line made the only break in the vast and dark 
expanse around them. The painted Indian, in 
his wild array of skins and feathers, stood like 
some pictured figure in the silent scene of which 
he formed a part. Pathless forests stretched far 
away in boundless and unknown space, whose 
silence was disturbed only by the strange cries of 
animals as yet unseen, and whose eternal shad- 
ows seemed to rest upon mysteries as deep as 
the solitude in which they were hidden. Secrets 
of human destiny were there, and a future whose 
vast and manifold scroll was as yet unrolled even 
to the eye of imagination itself. Upon this vast 
Held, the human race was to take a fresh departure, 
and they themselves were to plant the germ 
of a new civilization, whose growth was to be at 
least as rich as the lately discovered world around 
them. Had some one arisen, as of old, more pre- 
scient than the rest, to foretell the destiny which 
awaited them, like the Hebrew mother, they 
would have smiled with incredulity at the magni- 
tude of the promise, and turned a faithless ear to 
the prophet and his prophecy. 

In all that crowd, perhaps there was one whose 
imgination might have been filled with such a con- 
ception. I mean '.Captain John Smith, the true 
founder of the colony, and the first historian of 
Virginia, whose strangely che'iuered lif(> had been 
such as to teach him a distinction between the 
unknown and the impossible; and who, with all the 
faith of genius was capable of aspiring to great 
things. With ijie country itself, he seems to have 
been completely fascinated, lor he declared that 
"heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed 
better to iVame a place for man's commodious and 
delightful habitation."! And Beverly, too, writing 
about a century after, says: "the country is in 
a very happy situation between the extremes of 



(.f Honing, p. IM. 

1 Smith's History of Virginia, p. Ml. 



heat and cold, but inclining rather to the first. 
Certainly it must be a happy climate since it is 
very near the same latitude \A'ith that of the Land 
of Promise. Jusidcs, the Land of Promise was 
full of rivers, and branches of rivers, so is Virgi- 
nia ;. as that was seated on a great bay and sea/ 
whereon were ail the conveniences of shipping, 
so is Virginia. Had that lertility of soil? so has 
Virginia, equal to any land in the known world.''§ 
Again he says, in regard to it, " The clearness and 
bi-Tghtness of the sky add new vigor to their 
spirits, and perfectly remove all splenetic and sul- 
len thoughts. Here they enjoy all the benefits of 
a warm sun, and by their shady trees are protected 
from its inconvenience. Here all their senses are 
entertained with the endless succession of natu- 
ral pleasures ; their eyes are ravished with the 
beauties of naked nature ; their ears are serenaded 
with the perpetual murmur of brooks, and the 
liiorough-bass which the wind plays when it 
wanders through the trees; the merry birds, too, 
join their pleasing notes to this rural concert, es- 
pecially the mock birds, who love society so well 
that often, when they see mankind, they will perch 
upon a twig and sing the sweetest airs in the 
world.'""!! So wrote, a hundred and thirty years 

ago a Vir;;iii!im. enamored of his native land. His 
picKite uiiiy Ic cxi lav^gani ; but who does not 
admire ilii.' .-iiiiii in vUiirii ii i.< diavvii ! 

It is not my uurp-ue lo attcmiH to trace the his- 
tory of Virginia lium iis first painful beginnings, 
through all the stages ot iis growth, up to its pres- 
ent .«tale and condition. It' the proper limits of 
this address did not forbid it, I sliould be prevent- 
ed by my want of qnalilications for tlie task. But 
the history of every people has a moral which it 
may be profitable to study, and not only teaches 
the mode in which its national character has been 
moulded for good, or ill, but also the means by 
which it may be strengthened and elevated. To 
this extent the history of each people becomes a 
matter of general interest to all. The title a Slate 
may have to the respect of mankind must depend 
upon facts, and to preserve the historical evidences 

j upon which they rest, ought to be a labor of love 
to its sons. To cast a passing glance at each of 
these views of our history, perliaps, may not be in- 
appropriate on the present occasion. 

To stimulate individual energy, and lo extend 
individual liberty, seems to have been the great 
object of the Virginia colonists. Social strength 

, was sought as the means for securing the oppor- 
tunities for such a system of culture, rather than 
as the end to be attained by the development of in- 
dividual freedom and energy. Accordingly, the 
largest liberty of individual action was sought, 
which in that day was deemed compatible with 
social order, and the due protection of persons and 
property. A knowledge of this their great desire, 
and of the circumstances under which it was mod- 
ified and exercised, will afford the key to the colo- 
niaBiistory of Virginia. " Existence wiiiiout gov- 
ernment, (says Bancroft, quoting from Jefferson,) 
s eeme d to promise to the general nia.ss a greater 
%Ecverly'sTliM ulVir, p. ^•'tir""«f Jbid, p. 058. ' 



degree of happiness than the tyranny of the Euro- 
pean governments."* The establishment of an 
ordinance for common properly, and the regula- 
tions of the home government^ threatened to dis- 
appoint the V'irginiacolonistsof their destiny ; but 
the instinct of national cliaracter, and circum- 
stances lavorable to its development, by which 
they were surrounded, were too strong for artifi- 
cial restraints. Says Bancroft, " They were 
Anglo-Saxons in the woods again, with the in- 
herited culture and intelligence of the seven- 
teenth century. The Anglo-Saxon mind, in its 
severest nationality, neither distracted by 
fanaticism nor wounded by persecution, nor 
excited by new ideas; but fondly cherishing the 
active instinct for personal freedom, secure pos- 
session, and legislative power, such as belonged 
to it before the reformation, and existed indepen- 
dent of the reformation, had made its dwelling 
place in the empire of Powhatan."t 

It was this spirit which enabled them not only 
to surmount the difficulties which so embarrassed 
them at first, but in the end to convert them into 
auxiliaries of their growth and progress. The In- 
dian power which was so near annihilating the 
colony in 1622, after it was placed under proper 
restraints, often served as a useful barrier to the 
too rapid dispersion of the white population in the 
wilderness. When we survey all the difficulties 
encountered by the early settlers, it is surprising 
that they survived the perils which surrounded 
them. Sometimes it was domestic dissension 
that disturbed them, then Famine stared them in 
the face, and to crown the whole, on one day they 
were nearly all annihilated by a general IntJian 
insurrection and massacre, with all the cruel ac- 
companiments of savage warfare "sparing neither 
age nor sex, but destroying man, woman, and 
child, according to their cruel way of leaving none 
behind to bear resentment. "J In 1609, they were 
reduced by a famine of uncommon horrors from 
five hundred to three-score men, when Sir Thomas 
Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport 
arrived with their two little cedar vessels, the 
"Patience," and "Deliverance," built l)y them- 
selves in Bermuda, where they had been ship- 
wrecked, and offered either to stay with them and 
divide their )>rovision, or to takx' them away, and 
put to sea again. This, and the opi)ortun'e ar- 
rival of Lord Delaware, saved the colony upon 
that occasion, but the "starving time," as it was 
called, was long remembered in their annals.^ 
Still more startling was llie ma.ssacre in March 
IG22, when, according to i5everly, "of Christians 
there were murdered three hundred and forty- 
seven, most of them falling by their own instru- 
ments and working tools. "|| 

Jn grateful recollection of the preservation of 
the colony under so many diliiculties more than 
one statute is to be found by which the "old 
planters" were exeiripted from a portion of the 
public burdens, and the 22d of March, the day of 
the massacre, was by law set apart as a holv dav. 

* liancrofl, vol. II, p. 213. 

t Bancroft, vol. It, p. -104. t Beverly, p. 39. 

§ Beverly, pp. 21, 22, 23. || Ibid, p. 39. 



to coinniemoiate their providential deliverance 
from utter destruction at that time. Of the feel- 
ings awakened by such events amongst a handful 
of settlers, environed as they were by so many 
perils, we can now form no aderjuate conception; 
but the colonial statutes of that period, and a little 
after, present some striking evidences of the con- 
dition of the people. A general war was declared 
against the Indians; certain periods of the year 
were fixed upon by law (or hunting the savages, 
and tailing upon their towns; persons were for- 
bidden to work in the fields unless they were 
armed, and at least four of them together, and they 
were strictly enjoined to carry arms to church.^ 

The trade between the whites and the Indians, 
and the terms of their intercourse to a certain ex- 
tent, were regulated by law. The colonial gov- 
ernment, of course, exerted to the utmost their 
feeble powers for the protection of the citizen, but 
after all, the main dependence was upon indi- 
vidual energy and resour(^es. And upon that 
idea, the whole policy of the government was 
tiased. With such means, and entirely by their 
own exertions, they were able to work out 
their deliverance so far as to enable Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley to say in his answer to the Lords 
Commissioners of Foreign plantations, in 1671, 
"the Indians, our neighbors, are absolutely sub- 
jected, so there is no fear of them. "a Of cours« 
this refers only to the settled parts, as history 
shows a very diflerent state of things on the fron- 
tiers then, and long afterwards. It was, perhaps, 
well for the Colony that it was forced to depend up- 
on itself for protection against the dangers which 
assailed it, for it was this necessity which led to 
a social organization and domestic policy, upon 
which were founded the ultimate happiness and 
prosperity of the State. 

In lG19,the first colonial assembly that ever met 
in Virginia, was convened by Sir George Yeard- 
leyi and in July, 1G21, a written constitution was 
first given by the London Company. The legisla- 
tive power became thus vested in the Governor, 
Council and Burgesses of Assembly, elected by 
the people, and Council, after ICSO, sitting apart 
as an upper house in legislative matters, and 
also advising the Governor as to his executive 
duties. The acts of this assembly, when assented 
to by the Governor, became laws, unless nega- 
tived by the Crown. The Council, although ap- 
pointed by the Crown, or in case of vacancy by 
the Governor, held by a tenure which was in fact, 
though not in theory, independent, and for the 
most part, like the burgesses, sided with the peo- 
ple, with whom they had common interests c The 
right of representative government being once 
I granted, a domestic organization and policy were 
i soon moulded so as to meet substantially the wants 
ol the people. In 1G23, monthly courts were es- 
tablished, and likewise commanders of plantations 
were instituted to be of the quorum, and also to 
exercise a military control over the plantation for 
which they were appointed. The general court 

ing, 174, 3i7,'418, 319. '^"' 

aHening, vol. II, p. 511. 
ilbid vol. I, p. US. 
(1 Beverly, PP- 20:], 4, Ct, 0, 7. 



was composed of" the Governor and Council, and 
appeals lay to the General Assembly d The germs 
of the general and local governments of the colony 
were thus planted, and without going into a his» 
lory of the various grants, and restrictions upon 
the power of the General Assembly, it may be 
said that the history of its legislation proves, that 
practically this body controlled the domestic af- 
fairs of the Slate, the Governor and Council, in 
most instances, concurring, or else being over- 
ruled by public opinion, except in some of those 
cases in which the king interfered for purposes of 
his own. Indeed, the Virginia agents who were 
sent to London to obtain a new charter from the 
king, in 1G75, asked for a confirmation of the au- 
thority of the " grand assembly,"consistingof Gov- 
ernor, Council, and Burgesses, aad said "this is, 
in eflect, only to ask that the laws made in Vir- 
ginia may be of force and value, since the legis- 
lative power has ever resided in an assembly, so 
qualified, and by fifty years' experience had been 
found a government more easy to the people and 
advantageous to the Crown ; for in all that time, 
there had not been one Jaw which had been com- 
plained of as burthensome to the one, or prejudi- 
cal to the prerogative of the other. "e 

In an address made by the Governor and Coun- 
cil in their legislative capacity, and by the House 
of Burgesses to the king in 1752, it is stated," that 
as we conceive, according to the ancient consti- 
tution and usages of this colony, all laws enacted 
here for the public peace, welfare, and good gov- 
ernment thereof, and not repugnant to the laws and 
statutes of Great Britain, have always been taken 
and held to be in full force until your majesty's dis- 
allowance thereofis notified here, and that the same 
be revised, altered, and amended, fro.ni time to time, 
as our exigencies may require. But that when a 
law once enacted here, hath once received your ma- 
jesty's approbation, and both been confirmed, final- 
ly enacted and ratified, the same cannot by the 
legislature here be revised, altered or amended, 
without a clause therein to suspend the execution 
thereof, till your mnjesty's i)leasure shall be known 
therein, alilioiigh our necessities for an immedi- 
ate revisal, alteration, or amendment, be ever so 
pressing,'7'«"tl accordingly they complain of the 
king's signing some of their own laws because 
they were thus placed beyond their reach, without 
the tedious ])rocess whicli they describe. From 
which it is to be inferred that their domestic leg- 
islation was for the most part framed by them- 
selves, with but little interference from abroad. 
Such interference rarely took place excejj! in mat- 
ters relating to foreign (lommerce and impericil in- 
terests, or the more selfish and personal schemes 
of the king, or his favorites, for purposes of indi- 
dual plunder. 

The judiciary, too, was eminently popular; jus- 
tices of the county courts practically filled their 
own vacancies, as the appointments were made 

r/Sir \Villiaiii Berkley's s(a«e»nent, ill i(;7f, (Men 
ing, vol. H, p 5^2.) '^ 

i. Heniuf;, vol. II, p. 5Q7. 
/HeningSlh, p.436. 



by the governor and council, upon recommenda- 
tions given liy themselves. Appeals lay not only 
to the general court, but, as Sir William Berkely 
declares, to the general assembly itsell'; this, with 
the trial by jury, which was virtually given by the 
ordinance of the company in 1021, and secured 
by legislative enactment in 1012,* constituted a 
system which was satisfactory to the people at 
that time. But these county courts, which formed 
so important an element in the government of 
Virginia, and so powerful an agent in moulding 
the character of her i)eoj)le, and in promoting her 
prosperity, were not confined to judicial functions 
alone ; they had many of the powers of a local 
government, laying taxes, making roads, and 
sometimes even waging Indian wars, by the as- 

j sent of the Stale fir.-st given, under their own 

[.management and wiih their own money. In 
1045,1 the counties of Isle of Wight and Upper 
and Lower Norfolk, were directed to make wur 
upon the "Nansimon Indians." In the same 
year, certain other counties were associated to 
carry on war against; the Indians,! under county 
lieutenants. In lGW,.it was enacted, that those 
maimed and hurt should be relieved by the coun- 
ties in which they resided. At first, the burgesses 
themselves were organized to be paid by the 
counties which they represented. In 1002, it vi'as 
enacted that "whereas oftentimes small inconve- 
niences happen in the respective counties and 
parishes, which cannot well be concluded in a 
general law; the respective counties, and several 
parishes in these counties, shall have liberty to 
make laws for themselves, and those that are so 
constituted by the major part of the said counties, 
or parishes, to be binding upon them as fully as 
any others. § 

In 1079, this system was further regulated || by 
associating delegates from the parishes with the 
justices. The first road over Kock-fish Gap was 
made by the county court of Augusta, under the 
authority of a law of the assembly. Nay, so Car 
did the early Colonial Assemblies go in this 
division of power and duties, that in 1015 they 
entered into a contract with Captain Henry 
Fleet for ending the war with Opcchancanough, 
lor a consideration to be given him, and direct- 
ed the counties north of James river to raise 
certain troops to be placed at the disposal of 

I Lieutenant Fra. Poythers, and himself.^ The 
General Assembly thus acting, through and 
upon a sort of confederation of local govern- 

I ments, and stimulating, as I shall presently 

' show, individual energy to the highest possible 
activity, accomplished results which were won- 
derful for its means. By dividing the powers and 
duties of government amongst these local tribu- 
nals, and by apportioning to each in this way the 
expenses aad burthens of public operations, in 

I *Hening Olh, p. ISO. 

! t Hening 5th, p. .3ir). J Honing 1st, p. 292. 
^ Ibid 2, p. 171. II Ibid 2, p. .111. 11 Ibid 1st, p. 
I 318. 



proportion to the share of beneiit- received by its 
constituents, they obtained the largest command 
of the resources and revenues of their people, 
which, perhaps, any government ever enjoyed. 
But this is not all, for they thus trained up the 
whole body of the people to the early considera- 
tion and management of public afl'air.*, and se- 
cured a class — the magistrates of the county — 
who were always ready and willing to maintain 
order and justice at home, and to organize for de- 
fence in war. A class which constituted for the 
State its ornament in peace, and its defence in 
time of war. A more honorable and useful place 
in human society could not well be devised, than 
that which was held by the old Virginia magis- 
trate. Commanding the entire respect of the peo- 
ple of whom he was one, and bound to them by 
the ties of a common interest and mutual associa- 
tion, he could not fail to enjoy their confidence. 
Wielding as one of the court the power of the 
State, and interpreting its laws by judicial deci- 
sion within the limits of liis county, or else sitting, 
like the Druid, under his oak to administer justice 
between man and man, in cases upon which he 
might act alone, he learned to understand the re- 
lations of law to public and private right. 

In such keeping, the rights of himself and his 
neighbors were safe, and thus were trained up a 
class of men to whom the great body of the peo- 
' pie might refer for counsel and assistance, in 
times ot dililculty and emergency. Thus, too, 
each county was provided with a local govern- 
ment, which provided the greatest possihle secu- 
rity to persons and property to the extent of its 
jurisdiction. Under the existing circumstances 
of the colony, a more admirable institution for po- 
litical and judicial purposes could not have been 
devised. But this was not the only local subdi- 
vision of importance to the economy of the pro- 
vinjfci^l^ie counties were subdivided into par- 
ishSyBnBpch of which was a vestry, who took 
char^SJthe temporal interests of the established 
church. But this vestry, originally selected by 
the people of the parish, tilled vacancies in their 
own body and chose their own ministers, who 
held liieir livings at their pleasure, so that the 
same spirit for popular government, which was 
visible elsewhere in the institutions of Virginia, 
maniiested itself here also.« A government thus 
constituted over a people sparsely scattered in 
ditlerent settlements, or plantations, was forced 
to rely upon individual energy and action, to an 
extent perhaps never known bel'ore in the alfairs 
of a regularly organized society. The first thing 
was to settle upon a laud system, which was 
finally moulded by the Assembly to suit for the 
most part the wants of the colony, although vari- 
ous obstacles were interposed by the seltish and 
unwise interposition of the crown. 

By the original charter, a "right" to tifiy acres 
ofland to a person lor removing to, and settling 
i in, Virginia, and as much for his wife, and each of 
his children, was given and secured. A What con- 
■ a Beverly, p. 227-b. 
ilbid, p. 241. 



• stitiited "sealing," or settling, wilhiu the meaning 
■jof that, and subsetjuent laws, was llie siihject ot 
'I legislative iiiter|)retation, as appears by many 
' I statutes to be found in Ilening. So highly did the 
'Colonist value this" mode of inviting immigration 
1 and settlement, that in the capitulation of the 
■colony to the Commissioners of Parliament in 
jlG51, tbis settlement right was specially re- 
^, served, c and in 1G75, the agents sent out by Vir- 
ginia, prayed "that the [usual allowance of fifty 
acres of land for each person imported, which ex- 
perience had proved to be so beneficial, may be 
continued.^i Indeed, this grant of land upon the 
jcondiiion of settlement sometimes with, and some- 
; times without, a small price, became a favorite in- 
, strunient in the hands of the General Assemi>ly 
for extending the population into the wilderness 
and for defending the new plantations. Foris 
were built at the heads of the rivers upon o-ranls 
of land to the individuals building and settlino- 
around them, and armed occupation acts were 
early known to the Virginia land policy. When 
a new settlement was to be made, it wai5 invited 
by an act of the legislature, whieh generally ev. 
enipted the settlers from public burthens and 
taxes ior a hmited lime, who, by an old and stand- 
ing law, were entitled to a certain tiuaniily of land 
for improving and " seating'' itc In 1770 /'four 
I hundred acres of land were given to each iUmilv 
settling vacant lands on the waters of the Mis- 
sissippi, and to families who, for greater safely 
had settled together, and worked the land in com- 
mon, a town site of six hundred and forty acres 
I was given, and a further grant of four hundred 
[ acres, contiguous to the town, was made to every 
family upon co7isiderations of sjcch seUlement " 

In some cases $2 25 per one hundred acres, or 
a cent and a quarter per acre were to be paid by 
those claiming the settlement provisions. In fact 
the settlement of Virginia beyond the Blue Rido-e' 
at least, seems to have been made by the "rant^of 
lands upon the condition of occuping, improvina- 
and de/ending Ihem. Of course in times of "real 
difllcully, and to the extent of her means° the 
State contributed to that defence, but the'chief 
reliance, after all, was upon individual resources 
How far that reliance was just, may be found in 
tne adventures of Boone, Logan, Harrod, Kenton 
and Clarke, and many others, whose heroic 
achievements upon "the dark and bloody <^round " 
(as Kentucky was called.) might figure in romance, 
if ill their CH!^e the reatily were not even stranger, 
and wider than fiction itself, in the experience 
of such men, war or peace iiiighl depend upon 
the accident of an hour, and if lime were "iven 
cHen. Isi, p. 3G4. 
<mea. 2, p, .024. 

cllening Jst. p, 253, fi)r not permittinir seltle- 
meats on north side of Raj^pahannock river In 
regard lo settlement on the IJoanoke, yee Hen 
Olh, pp, 37-r)8. In regard to settlements on the 
watersof the Mississippi, Hen tlih '^:f^ 

/ Ifening yth, p. .r,.) and Marsha'irs I'li^iory o( 
Kentucky, vol. 1, pp. ^':\ 0, 7, i>. 



/^ 



to warn his iiciglihor of the upproac-hino- assuuli, 
or to clispaleh a nniiicr to the nearest settlement, 
he would have as much opporlmiily for prepara- 
tion as lie coiikl reasonably ex])ect. The lives 
and tortunes of his family must mainly depend 
upon his own courage and address. The dithcul- 
ties, dangers, and suflerings of forest life, and In- 
dian warfare, were all familiar to him, and lie 
could use the hoc, ihe axe, or the rifie, with er|ual 
skill 10 defend himself against them. Take Mar- 
shall's aofount of the shiflslo which early settlers 
m tinca.sllc, or Kentucky, as at dillerent limes the 
present Slate of Kentucky was variously caileiJ, 
and you will find that the contrivances of Robin- 
son Crusoe were scarcely more primitive and 
simpie. They encountered all this for what ? To 
be/zfe,- free beyond all that was known in the expe- 
rience oi man; free to act and to feel, and to 
draw irom the boundless stores of nature without 
et or hindrance from the competilion of his fel- 
low, and with no human opposition, except from 
the Indian, whose wild warfare served to diver- 
sify Ihe adventures, in whose excitement he loved 
to live. 

In ilitis iioinling- out the extent to which the 
freedom and energy of individual action was de- 
lyelopi'd and encouraged by onr colonial policy, ii 
is but justice to our ancestors to show that it 
was not done without some regard also to the 
jri^his and welfare of the Indian, who, in the gen- 
|eral, seems to have been treated kindly, except 
jin the exigencies of ac ual war, or under the pro- 
vocation of some late massacre. In llcning's 
statutes for JfitlLa may be seen a digest of laws 
Ipreviously passed, in which are to be found many 
jot the germs of the federal policy in regard to 
, Im lan intercourse. The boundaries between the 
Indian territory and that opened to the settlements 
of the whites, were to be marked ont ; if the 
whites intruded upon them within their settle- 
ments, their houses were to be pulled down, and 
themselves expelled. Their persons and property 
were secured by law, and none but licensed 
traders were allowed to trade with them, and, to i 
] prcven' collisions, no Indians were permitted to 
, come within the settlements, except such as had 
m.lges .Subsequently, it was prohibited by law 
to sell them liquor or arms, and various provisions 
were made lor their education and civilization.^ 
Alter this review of the fundamental institutions 
01 our colonial government, and of Its policy in 
regard to the lands and the Indians, the two sub 
jects 01 greatest interest to it, and which were so 
closely connected with the moral stale and the 
neces.sities ofthe physical existence of the people, 
i think It will be admitted that our early organiza- 
tion, so Hir as It was of domeslicorigin, gave great 
••niciPiicy to a society, whose members were so 
tew and scattered. To settle the wilderness, and 
^lear up a groat people, were the main objects of 
Hheir^ pursuit, and the chief ends of their missiojn. 
j </ Hening. vol. H. p. 13S. ASliih's }^i^t.of Vir. 
; ginia, p. 2l7, and lieverley, p. XVi. 



/& 



what progress v.-as earlv made in this career, 
their liistory will attest. ' 

I have already shown how they laid the founda- 
tion oi our siibse.iucnt Indian policy with most of 
the cons-ervaiive checks upon the cupidity of the 
white man, which have been introduced into 
federal legislation in favor of ihe aborigines. 1 
might have shown, too, that they introduced the 
chseniial dementi which have characterized our 
federal land policy, it? pre-emptions, f its discrimi- 
nations in favor of the actual settlers, and not i^^ 
system, l)ul a system o/ surveys and records. 
Th ; provision for the record of the sales of lands. 
iv said by Sir William Berkelpy,<i to have been at 
ihiil day (1071) the only innovation upon the laws 
ol i:nglaiid. In 1G71, Sir William Berkeley says, 
he does not much miscount in rating the popula 
tion of Virginia at above 40,000 persons, of which 
6,000 were Christian servants fpr a short time, 
an.) 2,000 were black slaves.,- In ICSS, Bancroft 
estimates the population at more than .'')0,00a.7 
Such was the people of whom it v.as asserted in 
lG71,thai ''both the acquisition and defense ol 
Airginm have been at the charge of ihe inhabi 
tanis, and that the peoiile at that time were at the 
e.s'pcMsc of supporting- not only ilie government, 
bill the governor, whnii occu>ioned their taxes to 
he very high,^and that these taxes must continue 
high lor the maintenance and support of the gov- 
ernment, execution of law and justice, and defense 
riiu! ornament of the country, erecting and endow- 
ing of i-h inches, maintenance of niini.'^ters of f^ng- 
hsii ordination, doctrine and liturgv, building and 
lurnilnreolforls, bridges, ships-.of-war,towns,/(&c 
In llie same document it is asserted, by the Vir- 
ginia agents, that their goods yielded to the king 
in his customs about 100,000 poulid.s. 

This, loo, was the handful of people who had 
commenced a contest for an enlargement of their 
liberties when their hrst assembly met, which they 
\Vere still conducting at that time. In thr 
very iir.-t assembly they declared that "the 
governor shall not lay any taxes, or imposition'- 
upon the colony, their lands or commodities, 
utherwi.-se than by the authority of the general as- 
.-embly, to be levied and employed as liie said as 
sembly sliall appoint,'' t and in Itl.TIjit was enact 
ed that "lor encouragement of men to plant store 
of corn, the price shall not be stinted, but it shall 
be free lor every man to sell it as dear as he cau.'V 

In l6-'Ji^, during the English Protectorate, they 
asserted that '-the right of electing all officers o( 
this colony, should appertain to the burgesses,' -< 
which right they exercised during that period 
Bancroft says: "Virginia established upon hei 

/ M II r.-li all's History Kentiicliy. vol I p '^7 

./Ifening. vol. II. p. ."iiy. >»• • 

, f- Ibid. vol. 11, p. 515. / T.aiicroli. vol. II. n. 4.09. 

" ileiiiiig, vol. I], p. .''>2.'). 

// llening. vol. 11, p. rr2H. 

/ Ifening, vol. I, )). 1'2'2. 

/ ll.id, vol. I, p. 17.^. 

/ Ibid, vol. I, p. Tr2. 



soil the siipiemacy of the popular branch, the free- 
dom of traJe. the independence of religious socie- 
ties, the security from foreign taxation, and the 
universal elective franchise;" /already she pre- 
ferred her own sons for places of authority; the 
count ry felt itself honored by those who were 
' \'irginians born,' and emigrants never again de- 
sired to live in I'^ngland.'' in If a re-action to some 
extent look place atter the restoration of mon- 
archy ill England, " it was not without an earnest 
struggle on her part." The agents sent by her to i 
England to obtain a new charter, essayed by ar- 
gument to show that they were entitled to tht 
privileges of Englishmen, n and said, that " tiiey 
iiurably conceived it to be the right of Virginians, j 
as well as all other Englishmen, not to be taxed, '■ 
Init by their consent, expressed through their re- 
presentative." u Especially did they wish that 
the people of \irginia ■• should not be cantonized 
by giants given to particular persons," meaning 
the large and improvident grants to Arlington, 
1 (jnlpeper and others. It was during the delay of 
I vfdress of these grievances, that Bacon's rebellion 
I broke out in A'irginia, caused partly by these large 
I grants, which embarrassed the land titles of the 
I colony, and still more by the delay of the governor 
; to pilnish the Indian outrages upon the whites.;) 
j Whatever may have been the origin of this 
! movement, it is ))lain from the action of Bacon's 
legislature, that their views extended beyond their 
llrst subject of complaint. They declared against 
plurality of oliices, and for rotation in certain ofii- 
I ces, dis(jualitied all persons t'rom holding offices 
i except natives, or those who had resided in the 
country for three years, restored universal suf 
Irage, required vestrymen to be elected every 
three years by the people of the parish, prescrib- 
ed that in each county representatives should be 
, chosen by the people equal in number to the jus- 
tices, to act with them in laying county levies, 
and making iiy-laws. q This movement, which 
was suppressed, caused much blood to llow, and 
great sutfering in the colony. The author of the 
Xorthumberland trad says, it was wispered to 
have been said by the king, "that old tool. Sir 
William Berktiy, had hanged more meu in that 
naked country, than he had done for the murder 
o( lus father. ' It was made an excuse, too, for 
denying the charter, anrl curtailing the privileges 
of the Colonial Assembly. Still, for all practical 
pui poses, they conlinuetl to exercise more and 
more pawcr over their domestic interests. The 
, statute book proves it. They coined money, they 
i laid duties for Ibrts and lijrht houses, they made and 
managed Indian wars, authorized exploring expe- 
ditions, rewarded discoverers with a monopoly of 
the u.sc of their inventions for a limited time, 
/ Buncroli, vol I, p. :.'.31, 
,,. Ibid, p. 231'. 

ii. Hening, vol, 11, pp. .V2Ci-i). 
'< Hening, vol. If, p ,%.'», 

/-Account ul T. M. of Xorihumbei'laud ; al«'o 
fiufwell .■< MS. and Force, I si vol. Ffigf. Tracts. 
•j litnins ■-'. Hjiom's f.uw*. 



// 



and maintained their right to appoint and con- ' 
irol thoip own treasurer, and to appropriate 
hy law the money raised by taxes. If a new 
territory was to be explored upon the Roan- 
oke, or' I.eyond the Bine Kidge, they ofl'ered an : 
exeinplion lioin laxcs I'or a limited period, and i 
gave settlement rights and preemptions to the i 
odventnrer^. Ii" a new road was to be opened, as 
that over F.oek-tish gap, the county was empow- 
ered to lay the necessary taxes, and execute the i 
work. It" the Maitapony was to be opened by j 
private subscription, trustees were appointed, 
aiul their duties prescribed. 

Uwas a Colonial Legislature which first pro- 
, ifcied the improvement of the waters of the 
".lames above the falls, and of the Potomac Up to 
Fort Cumberland; and in these instances, for the 
' lirst time, by way of conjpensalion to the private j 
'subscribers, they were authorized to take lolls 
' ufier compleling'lheir worlc. The first direct ap- , 
i)iopriation for a road, whicii I have found, was ; 
lor one to connect the east and the west, for , 
! which the arrears of certain taxes, due to the j 
; Stale, in Greenbrier and oilier counties, through '\ 

wlii<h it wa^ to pass, were appropriated. Forts 
' were built, and niunued, at the iieads of tiie rivers, 
;\t their own expense, and a large military force, 
compared with their means and population, was 
; kepi on foot through nearly the whole period of 
. iheir colonial existence. They maintained and 
endowed an established church at public expense- 
aiu! sustained the whole burthen of domestic gov- 
ernment, and defense, in the most difticult times. 
It has been charged, upon the authority of some 
statutes, probably never very stricllvenforced.lhai , 
they were intolerant of religious dissent, and Sir j 
William Berkely's letter has been used asevidence i 
of their neglect of public education. In regard 
to the first charge, Beverly says : " Yet liberty of 
conscience is given to all oilier congregations 
pretending to Christianity, on condition they sub- | 
mit to the parish dues.'' And of Quaker commu- i 
nities, he says: '-Tis observed by letting them | 
aUneJ they decrease daily."/- In regard to the 
other allegation, it is said by Beverly: -'There 
are large tracts of land, houses, and other things, 
granted to free schools for the education of child- 
ren in many parls of the country, and some ol 
these are so lar^e, that of themselves, they are a 
handsome maintenance to a master. These 
schools have been founded by the legacies of well 
inclined gentlemen. In all other places, where 
such endowments have not been already made, 
the people join and build schools for their child- 
ren, where they may learn upon very easy 
ternis.''.s 

" But Spotswood," says Bancroft, -'a royalist, a 

high churchman, a traveler, reverenced the vii- 

1 lues of the people." "I will do justice,'' he 

writes to the Bishop of London, "to this country. 

I have observed here less swearing and profane- 

I ness, less drunkenness and debauchery, less un- 

r Beverly, P- S'-iO. 

s Beverly, p- 240. t Bancroft, vol. II. p. 155. 



/g 



! charitable feuds and animosities, and less knave- 
ries and villainies, than in any part of the world 

Iwhere my lot has been."t When we come to 

j consider the heavy burthens imposed upon the 
foreign commerce of Virginia by the British gov- 
ernment, and its small population and resources 
at home, it is surprising' to see how much was ac- 
complished. Her settlements were constantly 
extending under the fire of the Indian rifle. 

Spotswood, the most far-sighted of our colonial 
governors, early turned the attention of Vir«;inia 
to the country beyond the Ohio, and exploring the 
passes of the Blue Ridge mountains, and penetra- 
ting into the valley, is said to have extended his j 
views to Kaskaskia it.->elf, at that time a French I 
fort, separated iVora the nearest Virginia settle- 
ment by almost a thousand miles of wilder- 

neas.v He but anticipated the day; the hint 

( which he then gave was afterwards remembered. 

1 The progress of expansion went on until, per- 
haps, there was not a river or stream navigable 
to a canoe, from tlie .James to Point Pleasant in 
Kanawha, which had not been the scene of bloody 
strife between the Virginian and the Indian. To 
make good her title within her chartered limits 
against not only the Indians, but the French, Vir- 
ginia spared none of her resources, either in men 
or money. In 1746,r she contributed £1,000 to 
the expedition against Canada, and in 17S1, she 
began to make provision in men and money for 
the French and Indian wars.tr Ten thousand 
pounds were directed to be raised by loan by this 
act. In 175G, .■€"2.'j,000 were raised, ;<: and, for the 
first time, treasury notes, but notes bearing inter- 

i est, were used. 

I In process of time, as more and more money 
was raised, these notes were issued without in- 
terest, and made a legal lender, but, in all in- 
stances, specific taxes were laid for their redemp- 
tion. That this sound policy was pursued is evi- 
denced by the fad that, in 17G8, the taxes laid to 

' secure their payment were repealed, because, as 
alleged, a sum liad been raised equal to the whole 
emission of treasury notes from 175-t to 1762 in- 
clusive. y Bancroft was right in saying, '■ it was 
an age when i»ations rushed into detit, when 
stock-jobbers and bankers competed with land- 
holder.i lor political power ; and ^']rginia paid its 
taxes in tobacco, and alone, of all the colonies, 
alone of all civilized Stales, resisting the universal 
tendency ot the Hge, had no ilebi, no lianks, no 
bills of credit, no paper money.* (ntil llie French 
and Indian wars, bills of credit had been unknown 
in Virginia. To sustain it, she spared none of her 
resources. The first movement in regard to the 
French occupation of Fort Du Quesne, was from 
Governor l)inwiddie, of Virginia, who dispatclied 
Washington to ascertain their intentions. The 
first engagement, which opened the seven years' 

1 war, was between Washinsrion and Jumonvillc. 
u Ibid, vol. 3, p. 3-ir). 

u Kenning, vol. V, p. 400. ^^Ibid, VI, 117. 
j: Ibid, VII, fA ylbid, VIII, W7. 
3 Bancroft, vol. Ill, p. 300. 



19 



at tlie ftreat Meadows. Al Braddock's defeat, 
II "The Virgiiiifi eoin]>anie.s (sayss BanoroA) showed 
thegreatesl valor, aiid were nearly all iimssacred. 
Ol these i-ompanies, scarcely thirty men vere left 
alive. "'/'R "When drant mnde his ill-advised march 
upon Fort Dn Quesne with eight hundred High- 
landers and the \'irginia company, "the behavior 
of the \'irginians was publi^ely extolled by Forbes." 
Afterwards, Wa.shingtou Wks placed in command 
of the advance, which numbered among.st its 
forces ],900 men raised by Virginia, and, alter the 
place had fallen, two regiments of Virginians were 
left to guard it."M No sooner was this expedition 
(Over, than we tind Virginia, after being foiled in 
her attempts to preserve the peace by compensat- 
ing the whites tor spoliation made on their pro- 
i perty by the friendly Indians during their march 
/homeward, passing acts to raise men, and borrow 
£32,000 to relieve Fort Loudon, built at her ex- 
pense,cc in the Cherokee Nation, which had been 
invested by these Indians. 

Of all the money thus expended by Virginia, not 
only from her annual revenue, but from the loans 
which she made, I do not find any mention of 
more than .£30,000 which were returned to her by 
the Crown. To have sustained these burthens, 
and to have borne so great a share of this war, as 
she did, with her sparse population, shows a com- 
mand of the resources of the country, and an en- 
ergy on the part of the people, not often witnessed 
in history. She must have owed this to her insti 
tutionsand internal organization, but more to the 
spirit of her people. In referring to her institutions 
and policy, it must not be forgotten, that one of 
these institutions was that of African slavery, and 
that a cardinal feature ol' her policy was taxation in 
kind. That the existence of African slavery contri- 
buted much to the early settlement of this country, 
there can be but little doubt. Whilst the master 
was absent exploring the country, or defending 
the settlements against the Indians, the slave cul- 
tivated the land at home, and opened and improved 
what the white man had conquered. We find the 
slave following his master into the most distant 
and dangerous settlements, and many instances 
are to be found of his defense of his master's 
family against the as.'aults of the Indians. The 
eti'ect which this in.stitution must have had upon 
the national character of the whites, I must say 
nothing of here; that it made the sj)irit of inde- 
p«ndence and freedom still prouder, and higher, 
than before, we have the testimony of Edmund 
Burke himself, and it is obviou.*! enough that such 
a result would be the natural effect of «ucli a 
eause. 

That the fear of danger from the slave at liome 

restrained the master in his enterprises abroad, 

there seems to be no sufficient evidence in our 

history; that such tears at one time existed in re- 

Jation to the white servant, we have proofs not to 

be disputed. Sir William Berkeley in 1671, rW 

States the number of white servants to be 8,000 

while of slaves lie then counted but 2,000, and it 

tftf Bancroft, vol. IV,'l90. hh Ibid, IV, at I )3 M 

«<.Hening, VII, 62. U.id. ^'[[. 3.11. r(.',9 

'/<?Hening, TI, .'ilO. 



I appearscf! that tlie tbrnier plotted an insurrection 
l^in 1GG3, which ^ave so great an alarm to the 
colony, tiiat llie genera! court made an order" that 
no more "jail-birds/' as ihey were called, should 
be brought into Virginia, and requiring a Mr. 
Nevett to send out the "Newgate birds" within 
two montlis, according to a former order of the 
court. Beverly says, in speaking of this move- 
ment, that they were, led by " Oliverian so!dier8."'j? 
But llie slave who provided food for the family at 
home, seemed rather to have added to the mas- 
ter's sense of sernrity abroad. Whilst this insti- 
tution probably increased the number of fighting 
men, whi(>h the colony could send to war, the 
taxation in kind added greatly to the means of 
supporting them altroad, and of maintaining the 
government at home. 

The people were thus enabled to bear the bur- 
den of a tasation, which would have been intol- 
erable if laid in money, under the existing state of 
commerce, and the circumstances which sur 
rounded them. It is at once curious and instruc- 
tive to see how they converted tobacco, their only 
great staple, into the medium for taxation, and a 
currency for domestic uses besides. I will ven- 
ture to say, that a more curious and interesting 
study could not well be offered to the jiolitical 
economist, tiian the history of Virginia legislation 
upon this subject. Not only were the taxes laid 
in tobacco, but it wa.s made a legal tender, be- 
tween man and man. 

At first, if a dispute arose as to the value of to- 
bacco, when thus tendered, it was determined by 
the arbitration of neighbor.^, and afterwardi^ by the 
county court. In process of time, it was found 
more convenient to establish warehouses, where 
all the tobacco to be exported was deposited, and 
inspectors were appointed to ascertain its qua'ity. 
For this a receipt, or tobacco note, was given spe- 
cifying the quantity and quality, and at a price 
fixed, I think', annually by the county court of the 
county in which it was situated. 

These notes became a currency, and were made 
a tender. But the price might vary from one year 
to another, and, accordingly, it was provided, thai 
it should be a legal tender only for one year, at 
the price fiist fixed; its value from year to year 
being determined according to the lluctuations in 
the price allowed by the county court itself. There 
was also another difliculty; a note given tor to- 
bacco dcli\crable at one public warehouse, would 
not be so valuable as one issued from another 
more accessible to the foreign markets; a dif- 
ficulty similar in its nature to that of keeping 
up the par value of the paper of dilierent branch 
banks. This was remedied, as far as a remedy 
was practicable at all, by another contrivance. 
Centres of trade for the different i;ounties were 
lixed, and the tobacco notes of certain ware- 
houses were a legal lender only in certain contigu- 
ous counties which were designated bylaw. Jlut in 
fixing these values of the tobacco, the county courts 
might err, not probably iVom interest, but possibly 

^/!lbid. 
1 ^" Beverly.. pi> "'-*!• 



from mistake. To meet ihi?:, a debtor might some- 
times pay liis debt iu money instead of tobacco, if 
it pleased liiin, and in special contracts at home, 
the farmers might fix the prices of tobacco for 
themselves. Having one article of foreign ex- 
I port, the coloiiisis made the most of that; they 
constituted a currency of it, and by a system of 
contrivances made its value fluctuate witli the 
I foreign price of tobacco, and virtually with the 
I state of foreign exchanges themselves. The quan- 
tity could not be well increased, without a corres- 
' ponding increase of the production of actual val- 
i ues iu the shape of toi)acco, nor could it be dimen- 
. ished without a like falling ofl"in the supply of tlie 

article on which it was based. 
j As com|)ared with the attempts of the other col- 
I onies to issue paper based upon credit, or, indeed, 
I with some more modern and scientific attempts to 
' create a paper money, how infinitely superior is 
this early contrivance of the old Virginians ! Upon 
this uubject, the testimony of Bancroft is not less 
I eloquent than true.o-^ 

j Vanban, the celebrated engineer, who was a 
' financier also, is said to have addressed a memo- 
I rial to Louis XIV, to recommend that a portion of 
the taxes should be laid in kind, because the peo- 
ple could bear much greater burthens in that way, 
than in any other, and if tiie object w-as to extort 
as much as [lossible from the peojile for the use o) 
the government, he was probably right. The 
early history of Virginia would seem to prove it, 
for no people of the same number and means have 
probable ever contribiued so much to government 
with so liitle inconvenience to themselves. As I 
have said before, the whole, policy of Virginia was 
mainly founded on a reliance on individual ener- 
gies, which were fostered by more than an usual 
share of individual liberty. It is nn old subject of 
com|)laint with those who have written upon Vir- 
ginia atfaiis, that the \'irginians devoted them- 
selves too exclusively to agriculture and individ- 
ual enterprises. Beverly reproaches them with 
their want of '• cohabitaiion" and towns ; i( such 
was theil- want, it was no ihult of theirs, for their 
general assembly made all the attempts to Ibsler 
trade and industry, which were suggested by the 
views of political economy prevalent at that lime. 
In 1612, they declared ' Ireedom of trade to be 
the blood and iileof a commonwealth. 'VJi Thehis- 
I tory of our colonial legislation is replete with nets 
I to encourage the establishment of towns. As 
^i'Bancroft, vol. Ill, p. '3d. For a series of acts 
on the subject of tobacco as a currency, sec 1st 
Hening, iu'2, 1 WO, 209, to 213, establishing ware- 
Uouses. 216, 20G. Ibid, V, p. 1G8, allowing persons 
not'raising tobacco to pay in money, llening-, VI, 
159, 225, no cr6p notes ol older dates than eigh- 
teen months, a legal tender. 5GS, to allow tobacco 
debts to be paid in money for that year. 7th Hen- 
ing, 210, debtors jiaying in money or tobacco 
at their option, lor that year. Such acts seem to 
have been frerjuently passed, but for a limited 
timeonly. 1st Hening, 210, 211, allowing parties 
10 fix prices by contract by domeHiic trade. 
hh 1 Hening. p. U:iX ^ 



early ns lGf>", ihe It^gislaltire oflered premiums for 
ihe production of silk, flax and staple commodi- 
ties it '• Adventurers in iroQ works" were stimu- 
lated by exemption from taxation, and other pri- 
vileges^} Acts were passed ;U various limes 
10 enpour;is:e the production of wine and silk. 
The State itself sometimes embarked in these 
undertakings, as in the manufacture of salt in 
1776M Sometimes individuals raised money by 
rubscription, and the State ap[iointed trustees to 
receive and distribute the money in premiums 
for tlie production of certain commodities./^ And 
yet the various forms of social industry did not 
thrive in Virginia. The genius and mission of 
the people v.ere lor other objects. In the north- 
eastern British colonies, they looked more to llie 
tbrms of association for the means of develop- 
ment. Settled originally as a chnrch, and so gov- 
erned, society was invested with large powers 
over individual action; social .strength and privi- 
leges were the great objects of their culture, and 
social industry, in its various forms, received a 
large and early development. But natural taste, 
and the circumstances in whicli she was placed, 
gave Virginia enterprise another direction. She 
became ihe pio»rcr coZow;/. amongst all the British 
provinces. "Like Mas.sachusctts, Virginia was 
the mot her oi a cluster of states. ''?;;;/j She sent ex- 
ploring parties into Carolina, with a promise of a 
Ibnrleeu years" monopoly of the profits ; and such 
e.xpedilio'n:^ shecontinued to send both to the south 
and to the west, but mainly to the west, Upon the re- 
motest confines of the white settlement westward, 
the smoke of the Virginian's cabin ascended and 
in the farthest fastness of the forest, or wildest 
gorge of the mountains, the crack of his rifle was 
heard. Upon the hunting grounds of the Six 
Nations and the Cherokees, he was known and ] 
feared as '• the long knile ;' with the a.^e and the 
ririe, he made good his advance into the wilder- 
ness. Felling the forest, and driving tlie Indians 
before him in the course of his progress, he made 
the settlements upon which the new States were 
afterwards to be founded. Never turning her re- 
gards from the Mississippi, after they had been 
once directed to that quarter by her governor, 
Spotswood, Virginia pursued the dream of west- 
ern empire, with a determination which nothing 
could shake. 

As I said before, when the French made their 
appearance before Fort Du (Juesne, it was Vir- 
ginia who first demanded the cause of their com- 
ing. It was she who, at the Great Meadows, 
opened the first fire in the French and Indian 
war, and who, with all her aversion to paper 
money, for the first time conquered it upon that 
occasion, and strained her credit to the ut- 
most to raise funds for the prosecution of 
that war. One ol the first roads to which she 
n I bid, I, '109. 
//Ibid, IV, 328. 
IvCIbid, IX, 123. 
WOT Bancroft, vol II, )>• 13.T 
I WHeniiig, p. 29S and fc-r.:; 



ever coiUributeJ money directly, a small sum it is 
true, was^ to coiuiect the nortli branch of the Po- 
tomac with the Ohio at Fort Pitt, and the preain- 
ble of the art declares this lo be done both lor 
military and commercial purposes. ww Amid all the 
perils of the great revolulionary struggle, in 
which she bore a part as conspicuous and ditiicult 
as any, she was still tailhlul to the great aspira- 
tions which so long bad guided her. The early 
history of Kentuclcy, which is our history, shows 
that the people of that country, then a part of 
Virginia, with such aid as the State could afford, 
wilhout assistance Irom any other (juarter what- 
ever, make good our possession o( llie country 
upon the Ohio, in a series of heroic struggles, 
whose interest was so deep, and often so tragic, ^ 
that they seem to wear the air more of fiction , 
than of fact. The Six Nalion.s were the moM 
warlike of all ihe Indian tribes, and Kentucky I 
their favorite hunting ground, they contested with 
more than iheir wonted energy. And yet on 
this "dark and bloody ground," did Virginia ex- 
tend her settlements, in the fiercest period of the 
revolulionary conHict. and engage in one long 
struggle, not only for the freedom, but for empire, 
from the shores of the Atlantic lo the waters of 
the Ohio and the Mississippi itself. 

In 1711,>'hen Spot.swood, the ablest of Virginia 
governorsj proposed to strike al the French settle- 
ment of Kaskaskia, 00 by the incorporation of a 
Virginia trading company, he was ahead of his 
lime. The western boundary of Virginia settle- 
ment was then about the Blue Ridge, and hun- 
dreds of miles of wilderness formed an obstacle 
too great to be surmounted by such a power as 
she could wield. She could, and did, bide the time. 
In 1744, she acquired by treaty the Indian title 
over the basin of Ohio,;>;; and by 177S, she was 
.seated on that river. George Rogers Clark, one 
of her greatest sons, and who for military genius 
must rank amougfst the distinguished men of the 
world, renewed the idea of governor Spotswood. 
Then Kaskaskia. as before Fort Du Quesno, was 
the centre from which Indian incursions were 
directed upon the AHrginia settlements. His com- 
prehensive and active mind, enabled him not only 
to appreciate the military value of the post, but to 
suggest the means by which it was to be con- 
quered. The general assembly of Virginia lent 
him a ready and willing ear, and in 177S, a regi- 
ment of State troops for the service of the western 
frontier, was rai.'^ed, and placed under the com- 
1 mand ot Clark. In all the annals of successful 
military enterprises, none are more surprising 
than this; with two or three hundred men lie pre- 
pared to attack the town of Kaskaskia, separated 
by a vast wilderne.'^s from the nearest A'irginia 
settlement, and containing as many houses as he 
had men, and garrisoned by British troops, who 
could command tlie support of warlike and popu- 
//7iSee Heuing, p. £h'i. 
oobnncofi, 111,3}.'';. 
pp Ibid, III, 4f>r), 



^ 



lous Indian tribes. The only hope of success de- 
pended uj)oii surprising the enemy, and. in the 
face oj" every diiiicuhy, he managed to do it. 
Breaking through forests, and wading through 
ponds, he marched two days after his provisions 

I were exhausted, and appeared Itcforo tiie town at 
night. "Not a scatlcriag Indian had espied ht^ 
marcii, not a roving hunter had seen his trail.'Vyi/ 
yo complete was the surprise, that the town Icll 
without a struggle. The Brilisli were !«l]ll so 
superior in pojnt of forces, that llamilion who 
commanded at Vincennes, upon the Vv'iiba>li, took 
his time lor organizing a scheme for not on y driv- 
ing him from Kaskaskia, but for cutting oil" tlie 
settlements on the Ohio up to Fort Pitt. So secure 
was he in the consciousness of his superior 
slrengtli, that lie dispatched his Indian auxiliaries 
to harass the frontiers of Kentucky, whilst he re- 
mained in garrison with his regulars, to commence 
operations upon an extensive scale, alisr the close 
of the approaching winter. But in the very depth 
of winter, Clark, at the head of one hundred and 
thirty Juen, emerged from the swamps, throiigli 
which he had marched tor five days, and Ibrthe last 
five miles with thewaterup .otheir breasts, ''/rsur- 
prising the fcrt, and capturing it with garrison and 
stores. Marshall well says : "These expeditions of 
Col. Clarke were highly important, and beneiicial 
in their consequences. They bioke and deranged 
the plan of operations intended to pour destruction 
upon the whole population west of the Alleghany 
mountains; they detached from the British interest 
several of the Indian tribes south of the Great 
Lakes; their influence in Kentucky was imme- 
diate, extensive and salutary. And in all probability, 
they contributed es.sentially to lix the limits of the , 
U^nited States ultimately by the Mississippi; as 
those of \'irginia were extended to that river im- I 
mediately after one of these coniiuesis.''i.j That 
Virginia herself estimated her western possessions 
at their proper value, is proved by the exertions 
she made to preserve tl'.em. Mr. .TetVerson, in a let- 
(erlo General Washington, tells him that "Virginia 
is obliged to keelson dut3'from five to six hundred 
men in the defense of the western settlement^ at 
a great and perpetual expense :"!( and in another 
letter, to the same person in 1781, he says that 
•' She is obliged to embody between two and three 
thousand men in tliat quarler.'Kw This, too. was 
at the time when the Britisli, under Arnold, had 
invaded the State, and when the larger portion of 
her forces were with the southern army. 

Nor did Virginia forget the interests ofthe terri- 
tory, thus painfully preserved from the British 
grasp after the treaty of |)eace. Evidences oft he zeal 
and energy with which she struggled to maintain 
her right to the navigation of the Mississippi, are 
to be found in Mr. Madison's correspondence, as 
published in his works, and Marshall's History of 
Kentucky. And yet again, by an act as magnani- 

y</ Marshall's Hist. Kentucky, vol. I, p. GS. 
rrSee letter G. R. Clark, vol. I, p. 151. 
,v5Marshairs Hist. Kentucky, vol. I, p. 7i. 
tt l8l Jelf. 1&5. 
uu Ibid vol. I, 222, 



mous a^ can be found in the hi.'*lory oi any people, 
she ceded away to the United States this immense 
territory, almost without any consideration, other ; 
than that of the benefit to be derived by the peo- 
ple who were to settle in it, and liie general wel- i 
fare of the Confederacy. N'or would the, act have | 
beenunv,'ise,ifithad not been forthe fatal provision, I 
which excluded her own sons from an equal par- ' 
ticipation in the advantages of settling; that coun- 
try. 

In the course of this narrative of her relations 
to the western country, I have said but little of 
the part she bore in the I'evolulionary War. This 
was poconspicuous as to be familiar to nil. My oli- 
ject ha.s been to trace the social system of Virginia 
to its elementii, to show its origin, and point out 
the circumstances under which it grew and pros- 
pered. Tlie great principle of a division of power 
amongst connected jurisdictions, f?o as to secure 
the responsiliility of interests ibi- the just action 
of each, has nowhere been presented so surely 
and so fully a* in this Slate, and nowhere else has 
the aetiori of government itself, at so early a pe- 
riod, l)een so proudly basedunon individual liberty 
and energy as in Virginia. This is the key which 
will explain the nature oi' the part she bore in the 
Revoiutinu, and also the early i>references she 
displayed for the principle of conlederalion over 
that of consolidation, hjo well had Virginia been 
trained in this system oi govern.meMt, that the 
dissolution of the old form, and the disappearance 
of the governor in 177r>, scarcely made a breach 
in her proceedings. To the machinery of com- 
mittees of safety the convention of \'irginta gave 
at once a distinct organization. '• A ijeneral com- 
mittee of safety, was iippoiiiled by the convention, 
which was invested with the supreme executive 
powers of government. (Jounty committees were 
elected by the free-holders of the several coun- 
ties and corporations, from which district com- 
mittee.s wt-re deputed. (.)n these committees de- 
volved the rippoinimenl of the captains and subal- 
tern oiTicers o(' the regulars and minute-men, and 
the general superintendence of the recruiting ser- 
vicce.tT 

The origination of the committee of correspon- 
dence between the legislatures of the difl'erent 
Stales, which partially led to the first Continental 
Congress, belongs, as Mr. .letferson informs' us, to 
Virginia.t?c!/' Hy her]delegates,too,|svas the resolu- 
lution for the Declaration ol' Independence -lirst 
moved in the Continental Congress in 1776,.T;rand 
by her own distinguished son was that immortal 
document drawn. Of her may be said, what, per- 
haps, can be said of none of the other States, that 
there was no important theatre of military opera- 
tions, and after Bunker i lill, no important, battle, in 
whicli her blood did not freely flow. From the 
heights of Abram and ])Oston, in the north, to 
Charleston and Augusta, in the south, and from Ger- 
maniown and Yorlv-town,iu the J.'ast, to \''incennes 
vv9i\i Hening, Preface. 
U'u>3eff. vol. I, pp. 4 and 'M. 
-rrlbid vol. I, p. 94. 



and Kaslcaslcia.in the West, her sons were every- 
where in the field. In 17S0, Mr. JeHerson, in a 
letter to General Washington, says : '-The num- 
ber ordered Aom this State into the northern ser- 
vice are ab^«ul seven thousand. I trust we may 
count that fifty-five hundred will actually pro- 
ceed."?/?/ In a report, /nade at the first session of 
the twenty-eighth Congress, by the Hon. E. W. 
Huhard, of our own Slate, it is proved that Virgi- 
nia furnished sixteen continental regiments, be- 
sides Lee's light armed corps, and Bland's regi- 
ment of cavalry, and also'seven State regiments, 
and a Slate navy numbering 1,500 men.-:: Mr. 
Jeflerson, in an application to General Washing- 
ton for a loan of some supplies from Fort Pitt for 
an expedition which Virginia meditated against 
Detroit, says : " We think the like friendly olFice 
performed by us to the States, whenever desired, 
and almost to the absolute exhaustion of our own 
magazines, give well founded hopes that we may 
be accommodated on this occasion. The supplies 
of military stores which have been furnished by 
us to Fort Put itself, to the northern army, and 
most of all to the southern, are not altogether un- 
known to you.''* 

Again, in speaking of the unarmed condition of 
the militia, he says: " If they (Congress) would 
repay us the arms we have lent them, we sliould 
give the enemy l rouble, though abandoned to our- 
selves."'! In the whole of this great and difficult 
contest, I believe there is no taint of selfishness, 
or illiberality, to be found in the conduct of \'irgi- 
r.ia. Her escutcheon was borne by her sons 
through that fiery ordeal unstained by aught save 
the blood of the battle-field, or tlie smoke of the 
fight. Hers, too, was that son, of whom it was so 
justly said, alter the scenes of his life were closed, 
that he had been "first in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen."' h it just 
to such rnen that so much of their .story should be 
lost to mankind ? These men undoubtedly had a 
proper regard to fame. Were they not entitled to 
it? Shall it be lost, from the want of pious care 
on the part of their descendants to preserve the 
evidences, and set up the monuments of their title 
to the love and respect oj tlieir race ? And how 
much have we not already lost ! The whole story 
ofourSiate navy is now gone: it is not known even 
to tradition. And yet, I myself, onre heard Com- 
modore Baron, who was a midshipman in that 
service, relate some incidents in its career so stir- 
ring, and give so many reasons for deploring the 
loss of its history, as must make me ever regret 
that my countrymen should have been so insensi- 
ble to the value of their own story, as neither to 
have written it themselves, nor even preserved 
the materials for another to do il for them. The 
tombs of our revolutionary fathers lie thick arotind 
us, but the faithful chisel, or the pious care, is 
wanting to renew the inscriptions, or remove the 
rank grass, which hides them from the eyes of 
man, for which alone they were intended. The 
fame of good and great deeds, even ihougli it be 

yyJeff. vol. I, p. ISl. s.: Uep., p. 'Jf. 

* Jeff. vol. I, p. 199. tlbid, ^i 910. 



inherited, is of no small value; it opens for us a 
readier access to llie confidence of others, and 
creates within ourselves a new incitement to 
virtue. How is sucii an inheritance to be ine- 
served without the aid of history ? 

I know that ihis is tlie age of material develop- 
ment; never has nuin dealt so largely or so inti- 
mately with matter as now; never has he exerted 
such powers to control it ; never has his physical 
comlbrts or material resources been so great. But 
is there no danger that, in our aspirations after ma- 
teria' weidih and power, we shall forget what is more 
priceless sliil, moral elevation and grandeur ? It 
is much io improve the con ntry, but more to im prove 
the people. To aflbrd new excitements to honor 
and virtue by wise and eloquent precept, or by 
what is still more persuasive, high example ; to 
win as u )ieople the trophies of fame ; to store up 
in the national repository of thought ideas which 
can serve to instruct and delight mankind ; these, 
after all, are the achievements which tell most 
upon the pa^e of history, and these constitute the 
only imperishable wealth of a nation. But if we 

■ i.-tiM V. -.i :■■■: 1 :ii! II- ;..)L'cs tell of u.s, or 



liiiVe no |ii.-.;iM y. •■ 
lor (;•• .'■ '•■\ r 111 II 
and live i-y ;!ic ex 
VVit!<i)llt ,1 ,n-!t.-i 
neiilier iiiiiiy nur 
ler, Vvi,- may liopc 
erly our own, wc 



l.\ \l::: HhIiI uf Otllcr.<, 

V. Ini II ilit-y may give us. 
I! u\\ 11, \\ I- crtM expect 
•iicy vl' national charac- 
>j.-leiii of culture prop 
! maintain even a jusi 



self-resi)ect, nor liave uc a liglit to expect from 
our sons a high ambition or noble aspiration 
They may spring up aatvcklliones in the »oil, but j 
they must grow as they spring, unaided by our j 
hand, lor u'e refuse even a memorial to the man i 
who may fall in our service. As I understand it, ! 
Mr President, it is to prevent such a want of 
history, as would, indeed, be a reproach to our : 
people, that your society has been organized, and 
IS laboring ; and 1 now appear before you to call 
public attention, as far as 1 am able, to the great 
value and impoitance of your pursuits. Let it 
not be said, that v/hile the whole world is alive to 
mailers of historical interest, we alone should be 
dead to the importance of our own story, and 
insensible to the duly we owe to those who have _ 
preceded us, and those who will succeed us, to 
guard and preserve its materials at least. But 
throwing out of view ail consideration of duty, is 
there nothing attractive in the study of \'irginia 
history itself? Is there nothing in the strange 
scenes of wartare and adventure, through which 
the settlements extended from the shores of the 
Chesapeake to those of the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi, to stir the blood, or kindle the glow of sym- 
|>athetic feeling? Is Ibere no interest in the wild 
march of the pioneer, who led the advance of 
this line of .settlement, finding a tViend and a 
home wherever he might have companionship with 
nature; whose asj)ects were as tamiliar to him in 
her deepest solitudes, or least accessible retreats, 
as when she smiled most pleasantly upon the 
usual abodes of man? 



Who would list recaU, it he could, the lost tra- ] 
dilions ot thnt bold spirit, who willingly staked - 
existence iisell upon any venture, no matter how 
desperate or wild, if it promised to gratify his pe- 
culiar tastes, and easting all (ear behind him, pen- 
etrated the very depths of the wilderness, where 
he could only hold his lite upon the doable condi- 
tion of pursuing his game, and eluding the savage 
by a woodcraft, am] a courage superior to his 
own 'i Undoubtedly the day will come, when the 
little that is left of this history, will he sought 
after with the most eager curiosity, and become a 
favorite object of anliqualian research. To col- 
lect its stray sybilliue leaves will yet be a labor 
of love. Even now, 1 think. I shall lind many to 
agree with me in the opinion that the institutions 
and civil deeds of the old fathers of our State, 
well deserve the study and commemoration of her 
sons. 

These were, indeed, such men as had no need 
to ask for more than to be fairly kno%vn, and who 
might truly say : 

'■ After my death I wiuh no other herald, 
No other speaker of my living actions, 
To keep mine honor from corruption, 
But such an honest chronicler as Grithlh.' 
Vou may have observed, Mr. PresieenI, that ia 
the course of my brief ievie\7of a portion of Vir- 
ginia history, I have said nothing of the period 
siiH'c thendo|iiion ot the present federal consliiu- 
tion. To have done so 

would have extended iliis address beyond its 
proper limits, and involved topics whose discus- 
sion might disturb the party feelings of the day. 
My object h;;s been to develop the moral, and 
unity of our history, and to present it in such a 
point of view ns shoubl be'aboveand beyond party 
considerations and intlucnccs. For that purpose, 
I have shown liow our ancestors, through suc- 
ceeding generations, labored lor the great end of 
so adjusting the social and particular interests of 
man, as to give the largest amount of individual 
liberty and power, which rnight be consistent with 
the necessary protection of a regularly organized 
society. Indeed, whh some, it has been a matter 
of reproacii to Virginia, that in the pur>^uit of this 
end, she sncrrificed too many ol the elements of 
social strength and v,-ealth. Out the fruits of this 
system are to lie found in the individual excel- 
lence which it developed, and the number of great 
men that it produced, during the period ol which 
'. have been trcnling, and through which the State 
adhered to it mo«t exclusively. I think, too, I 
have shown, that during this time, her social 
achievements were such as wotild have done 
honor to any people of the same number and 
means, in any era, or part r>f ;he woild. [f Lord 
Bacon was right in saying that the -'plantations 
of new countries are amongst the primitive and 
most heroic works of man,'' then surely A'irgiiiia 
is entitled to a high place in the order ol human 
achieveinerit. Until the time of the Ainerfcan ex- 
periment in f vernmeiit, the efforts of statesmen, 



and the reiiiiemenis ol' their skill, soein to have 
been wholly directed to the ends of social strength 
and progress. With that experiment commenced 
the lirsl great forward movenicut in favor of in- 
dividual liherty, and the most successful form ol 
political organization for making- that develop- 
ment compatible with social strength and order. 
Amongst the leaders in this movement, if not at 
its head, \'irginia is entitled to be ranked, and 
when she takes her apjiropriaie place in ihc great 
Pantheon of History, there shall ascend from Jier 
altars, not the smoke from the blood of her vic- 
tims, but the grateful incense of the noblest of 
human aspirations, those of the soul, after a larger 
liberty of self-development, and a wider range in 
the boundless domain of thought. In the great 
Epos of Humanity we see nation after nation 
seizing vlie torch of civilization as it passes to the 
head of the column to lead the advance in the 
imglity march of our race. In the struggle for 
mastery, some faint and some fall by the wayside. 
Nationalities decay, ahd the forms of their insti- 
tutions pass away, but each, ere it leaves the 
scene, be'iuealhs its great and characleristic 
thougln as an everlasting possession to man. Be- 
neath the very ashes of their decay lives a tire 
whose ligiit is as imperishable as truth itself, and 
which is capable of transmission Irom generation 
to generation, so long as the human mind exists 
to allbrd the subject to feed the sacred tlame. 
Some leave a new light, and others inspire a higher 
hope to guide or to animate the march of human- 
ity. When we look thus to the achievements of 
othcr:s and reckon up the legacies of immortal 
I thought bequeathed by the past to the present, is 
it extravagant to hope that Virginia, too, may 
coutribule her idea who.se type may l)c Ibund 
hereafter in some new stage of human progress. 
It i.s a pious wish, and for one I dare to indulge it. 



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